It has become commonplace for hand-held devices to have a belt clip to enable them to be clipped onto the user's belt or waistband when not in use, so as to be stored in a convenient location for when they are needed. Such belt clips take a similar form whatever the nature of the hand held device. They comprise a clip part which is resiliently biased against a wall of the hand-held device, such that a belt or waistband can be inserted between the clip part and the wall of the hand-held device and held securely between these two parts. In some prior art devices the belt clip is formed from a single piece of spring steel which is bent in two to form two arms, and while one arm of the clip is the clip part, the other arm is fixed securely to the wall of the hand-held device.
These belt clips are difficult to put on and take off the user's belt, and this often requires two hands, which in some situations is not possible, for example, when the user is working on a ladder. Furthermore, they do not provide a reliable grip and can easily be knocked off the user's belt or waistband. Therefore in situations where a secure grip is required they cannot be used, and alternative devices, such as a specially designed belt with one or more pouches, are employed. This problem is particularly acute in the field of hand tools, where a reliable grip during storage is essential for safety reasons. One solution that has been proposed is a magnetic grip, where a strong magnet or steel plate is mounted on a belt clip, and a magnet is securely attached to the hand tool. Although this provides a strong attachment of the hand tool to the user's belt, and has the advantage of the clip remaining on the belt when the hand tool is in use, a major disadvantage is that the measure can be difficult to remove from the belt clip due to the strong attraction between the two magnets or magnet and steel plate. Furthermore, strong magnets are not compatible with a number of other hand-held devices, such as personal tape and MP3 players, and can interfere with medical devices, such as heart pacemakers.